Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Fogo Island Punt Race to There and Back

The citizens of Fogo Island, Newfoundland, have started a new tradition - a race across the ocean to Change Island ten miles away. The aim is to stimulate interest in the genuinely traditional Fogo Island punt, a rowing boat that used to be the workhorse of the community in the days when the sea was much easier to travel than the roads.The race should have taken place on the weekend before last and I've been waiting for a report. So far nothing has appeared, but here is a lovely video from the organisers in which one of the last builders of these lovely and characteristic boats talks about them.

2 comments:

The accents are very interesting. Apparently there are traces of Elizabethan English and old Irish there, and one of the towns on the east of the island was exclusively Catholic Irish until well into the 20th century.